White Lake native Amanda Mosed (left) is hoping to be in Yemen by Saturday to be there for her son, Jayzon, who was shot in the back of the head. She is hoping to bring him back home so he can be treated in Michigan. Photo from Amanda Mosed's Facebook

FYI

To donate to the Mosed family to help pay for Jayzon’s medical bills and bring him home, visit bit.ly/BringJayzonHome. For more information, search “Shooting for Life” on Facebook.

White Lake native Amanda Mosed is fighting to bring her 13-year-old son, Jayzon, home after he was shot in the back of the head while visiting family in Yemen.

Amanda, who currently lives in New Hudson, flew to Jordan Thursday to get a connecting flight to Yemen.

On Facebook, Mosed posted, “There is a no-fly (zone) in Yemen. No medical evacuation planes will go there to get my son. ... I’m bringing him back. I promise you, I won’t leave without my son.”

“I just wish it were me, not my sweet baby, I love you, Jayzon. We are going to keep up the good fight.”

She said Jayzon and his father, Fadhl Mosed, were spending the summer in Yemen visiting his immediate family. On Tuesday, Jayzon was in a vehicle with his cousin and uncle when a group of 13 men with automatic rifles surrounded the vehicle and started shooting.

“(Amanda) told me that Jayzon tried to run. He was shot and then ran a quarter of a mile to his aunt’s house,” Blackwell said.

Blackwell said, shortly after Jayzon arrived at his aunt’s house, he collapsed. He is being treated at Yemen German Hospital in Sana’a, where Blackwell said he is currently in a coma. He was shot in the left hemisphere of his brain in the parietal lobe.

“He’s like my own kid. He’s my little peanut,” said Blackwell, who met Mosed when they attended White Lake Middle School together more than 20 years ago. “Amanda is my best friend in this whole world, and my heart goes out to her and her family. She has gone through some of the hardest things, and she does not deserve it, and Jayzon does not deserve it.”

Blackwell said, while he was in the hospital, Mosed called Jayzon, and Fadhl put his phone on speaker.

“Amanda started talking to Jayzon, and his heart rate sped up,” she said. “That’s one good sign — that he recognized his mom’s voice.”

Blackwell is encouraging community members to call their local senators in hopes something can be done to bring him home.

“There has to be something we can do. This is America,” she said.

Blackwell said she is especially worried; on Friday morning, U.S. planes started airstrikes on Iraq militants — dropping 500-pound laser-guided bombs. This was the first of what is expected to be a series of American strikes to halt the Sunni extremist advance on the Kurdish capital of Erbil, the Pentagon told the Wall Street Journal. Erbil is approximately 1,000 miles away from where Jayzon is, Blackwell said, and she is worried about how this could affect him.

“He’s got to get out of there. He’s got to come home,” Blackwell said. “Everybody please pray for him.”

About the Author

Monica Drake is the Community Engagement Editor, working with social media and our websites. She also puts together the community sections, in print each Thursday and Sunday. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Oakland University. Reach the author at monica.drake@oakpress.com
or follow Monica on Twitter: @monica_adele.